Surviving the 4 Month Sleep Regression (waking every hour!)

So dd (dear daughter) is 17.5 weeks now... since about 15 weeks she had suddenly started waking more and more at night and waking every 30 minutes at nap time. After doing some research, I decided to leave her in her crib (not get her up) and just put her paci back in whenever she would wake (we do not do night feeds as of a few weeks ago since she actually started refusing them and then just not eating during the day if we really pushed her to eat at night).. she would always go right back to sleep but just wake up an hour-ish later (if at night) or 30 mins later for naps. So other than the hourly wakings, she has had about 5 nights total spread out over the past few weeks where she actually slept from 7pm to 3 (cried for the pacifier), but then went back to sleep til 7am, which is how she used to be before this regression hit.... but the next night she will then be up every hour from midnight-on crying for the pacifier.

To survive, we have brought back in our night-nanny one or two nights per week lately that we used when dd (dear daughter) was a newborn to be able to rest/recharge (she stays from 9pm to 6am). We also have established a set bedtime and bedtime routine and dd (dear daughter) does very well with this: gets in to jammies/sleep sack at 6pm, read 2 short books, 6oz bottle, burp for 5mins (which keeps her awake for when we set her down), placed in crib with her pacifier in and she falls to sleep between 6:35 and 6:40, every single night. This bedtime routine is precluded by a good daytime routine of awake at 7am, eats a 6oz bottle, plays and then naps from 9 to 11 (even though she wakes every 30 mins), then up and eats another 6oz bottle at 11, plays, then naps from 1 to 3pm, then up and eats another 6oz bottle at 3pm, plays, then takes a catnap from 4:30 to 5pm (this is where her favored 30 min nap comes in handy), then quiet/windown play until the bedtime routine begins at 6pm.. She crushes this schedule like a champ everyday... BUT whyyy isn’t this followed by a good night’s sleep? :-(

I feel like I have a great daytime schedule that dd (dear daughter) thrives on, but I am wondering now if I should do even less soothing when she wakes in the motn (i.e. starting Ferber methods and not using her pacifier anymore) to encourage her to begin soothing herself back to sleep...? For bedtime and all naps, she goes down so well with no crying, I just set her in her crib, hand her her lovie (nookums from amazon, she hugs it to death.. haha) and she adjust for a few mins and then falls asleep quietly. From reading my routine(s) with her, does anyone suggest that the pacifier might be keeping her in this sleep regression/phase? For reference, she wants nothinng to do with the paci when she’s awake, only wants it for sleep. Is anyone else currently suffering through the 4 month sleep regression??

Comments (3)

Wow that's a killer schedule. I wish my son was this disciplined. How did you get the baby to stick to this? Looking for tips since my LO (little one) feeds every 2-3 hrs at night, but thankfully doesn't wake up fully. And daytime naps are a whole different story since I have to rock him while he fights the sleep.

Wow that's a killer schedule. I wish my son was this disciplined. How did...

Posted
09/05/2018

Wow that's a killer schedule. I wish my son was this disciplined. How did you get the baby to stick to this? Looking for tips since my LO feeds every 2-3 hrs at night, but thankfully doesn't wake up fully. And daytime naps are a whole different story since I have to rock him while he fights the sleep.

I’ve always tracked her feedings and naps since she was born so I started to notice a bit of a pattern after about 3 months of tracking with what she naturally prefered.. So I just kind of created a schedule (6oz feeding at 7am, 11am, 3pm, and 6:30/7pm with 2 hrs of awake time followed by a two hr nap (2 of those) and sometimes a cat nap nearing 5pm, but sometimes she skips this)..and I just tried my best for a full week to get her in to it to see if the 4hr cycling was what she’d prefer and she seemed to take to it well so it just stuck. That last 2 hr nap of the day, I usually just let her sleep as long as she likes, which is why she sometimes wakes closer to 4 (which sometimes pushes her feeding) and will just stay up until bedtime around 6:30. Prior to this, I was trying to have her on a 3hr cycle of wake and eat, then play for a total wake time of 1.5hrs and a 1.5hr nap, but she was wanting to stay awake longer and also wanting to sleep longer and she never seemed hungry enough for feedings every 3 hrs.. so I adjusted it to a 4 hr cycle and it she just seemed to thrive almost immediately... Babies are strange, but it really helped to zero in on her cues to figure out what cycle/schedule fit her best.

I will say... it’s suuuper nice being able to schedule appointments or plan for visitors knowing exactly when her awake times are each day... makes life much more bearable with a baby.. NOW—if only she would go back to sleeping all night! Haha

We survived. We actually sleep trained possibly in the middle of it. Babies are always going through something- leap, growth spurt, regression, teething. So we figured let’s just do this and it was painless. He’s now 23 weeks and totally sleep trained even for naps. I finally have those chunky naps and I am one happy mama and he’s one happy baby!

We did CIO (cry it out) full extinction after exhausting other more gentle methods. But, the first night he only cried for 17 min. I think it was because we had slowly moved towards that. Now he is put down fully awake and is asleep in a minute or two. Zero crying. Stays asleep all night!

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